Inevitable
by ToxThexMoonxAndxBack
Summary: As a high profile case is halted due to lack of evidence things start to take a darker turn. Ronnie and Joe try to piece together where their investigation went wrong whilst Kate and Jake must deal with their own issues. (Kate/Jake)
1. Early morning thoughts

Kate finished doing her hair as her phone vibrated with a message from Jake telling her he was parked outside. Grabbing her bag she walked downstairs and out the front door locking it behind her before getting to Jake's car.

"Morning." she said half asleep hoping the headache that was threatening to emerge would disappear.

"Morning." Jake replied waiting for her to put her seat belt on before starting the car, from the looks of him her had had about as much sleep as her. They'd been in the office till almost one o'clock in the morning due to the high profile of the case they were currently working on. Unfortunately for them when an ex judge kills someone the press tend to have a field day. "Sleep well?"

She scoffed. "Running on empty I'm afraid."

"We have a briefing at eight."

She sighed looking at her watch, it was only five past seven. "Too early for all this." She ran her hand over her face. "I've still not forgiven Henry for giving us this case straight after that fiasco with the Busby trial, I mean if he didn't like us he could've just sacked us, no need to try and kill us by working us into the ground. I don't remember the last time I saw my house in day light."

Jake chuckled under his breath listening to Kate go off on her rant. "It'll cheer you up no end when I tell you who's on defence."

She looked at him and as he stopped at a red light he met her gaze. "No. No it can't be. Jake, please tell me you're winding me up."

"You think I'm looking forward to dealing with him?"

She rubbed the back of her neck. "All the other things I could've done with my life, could've done anything but no, I decided to be a lawyer and now I'm gonna spend the best part of the next month dealing with Cosby."

He patted her arm mockingly and laughed slightly. "And you're leading the trial too."

"I hate you..." She swatted his hand away.

"No you don't."

"Not as much as Cosby anyway."

He glanced over at her. "I'm going to take that as a compliment."

She rolled her eyes, admittedly she hadn't thought Cosby was that bad the first time she had been against him in court, for the main reason it was the first time she had seen anyone annoy Jake more than herself, but as that trial had progressed she had grown to hate him which led to her and Jake sharing a hatred for the man. "On another note, has Ron and Joe found Woods son yet?" She asked and Jake shook his head.

The accused was Jonathan Woods and out of all the witnesses they had his son, Jenson, was their best hope for getting a secure guilty verdict. Only Jenson had vanished two days before hand without a trace making their case even more shaky than it was before. "No idea where he's gone." Jake sighed. "They're going to see the sister today, Jess, she's not spoken to Woods since she was about nineteen but kept in touch with her brother apparently."

"What did she fall out with Jonathan about again?"

"Something about money."

"Oh yeah, I remember now. It always comes down to that..." Kate sighed sitting back. "He wasn't exactly skint was he, and still he refused to help her pay for her university fees, his own daughter."

"Thats something I don't understand." Jake said. "Woods had money, we know that, he had a wife and kids, he had a decent career and a lot of friends..."

"What you getting at?"

"I know Ron and Joe got the evidence to prove Woods killed him but I don't get what reason he had for killing Albie Redmond, he had nothing to gain from it, and Albie was one of his oldest friends, they went back years, never once argued. Albie was best man at his wedding and godfather to his kids."

"Albie's wife said he and Woods had argued the day before he was killed..."

"You don't believe Woods' plea of manslaughter then?"

She shook her head. "From the little Woods has actually said he says that they argued and Woods had hit him with the paperweight on the table, the one that has Albie's blood. But he's never said what they were arguing about. I know there have been cases like this but I just don't buy it. This man was his best friend, they'd never argued over anything, then when they do his first reaction is to clobber him with a paper weight."

"Take that as a no then."

"Think about it, if we were arguing would your first reaction be to kill me?"

"Nice cheery question for a Tuesday morning."

"I'm being serious because even though you drive me up the wall, I couldn't kill you."

"Is that another compliment Barker? You want to steady on."

She glared at him.

"No." He said as he pulled into the car park at work.

"No what?" She asked confused having forgotten what they were talking about.

"I couldn't kill you." He opened his door. "Come on, let's see what Henry has to say?"

xXx

An: not really sure where to go with this but it's just something I wrote that was unrelated to my other fics, please review, might give me an idea on where to take this x


	2. 48 hours

AN: please review x

XxX

"What is he playing?" Kate said is disbelief as Henry informed her and Jake that Cosby was saying that there wasn't enough evidence for the CPS to justify taking the case to court.

"He can't just start shouting unfairness, thats not the way the system works." Jake added. "There is a reason we have a courtroom with a jury."

"I hate to tell you but Cosby is making a lot of noise, hell he's even got the judge thinking your case is shaky from the start. Tell me again why you're not going with the plea for manslaughter?" Henry looked between the two of them wondering why they had made everything harder for themselves.

"Because we don't think it was an accident, Henry." Kate told him.

Jake nodded. "We accept the manslaughter and Woods will be out in five years if that. He's claiming that Redmond and he argued and he hit him in some kind of self defence. Woods has given more statements and stories than anyone knows what to do with, Henry. His stories don't match. This case has to have more so to it like Cosby he's creating a lot of noise."

"And all of it is to confuse us." Kate went on. "They want to make it seem as though we don't have a case, that we're just grabbing at straws, trying to make us forget or become blind to what this really is, which is murder."

"Beyond reasonable doubt. Remember that, the pair of you. If this goes wrong it's my head on the line, Woods was a very well respected judge before he took early retirement and by all accounts a decent man."

"Say that to Albie Redmond."

"And to Woods' children. If this was manslaughter then why has his son done a runner?" Jake asked and Henry sighed.

"You haven't got much time, you meet with the judge in two days to discuss the trial, if by then you do not have evidence beyond reasonable doubt that it's murder accept the plea to manslaughter, don't bother taking it to court. In my opinion you shouldn't have started all this in the first place."

Jake looked as though he was about to argue but he caught Kate's eye and she gave him a look as if to say 'drop it'. Henry wasn't going to listen to them anymore than he already had and at the end of the day they didn't have a very good track record of doing what he told them. Henry left to go to a meeting leaving Kate and Jake alone their office.

"He just wants his hands washed of this case before he looks bad in the press." Jake commented.

"He's got a point though, if we don't find something more in 48 hours we're gonna get creamed. There's DNA, an iffy confession and a paperweight with some blood on it. We need to find out why..."

He sighed watching her as she ran her hand through her hair. "So what now?" He asked.

She thought a moment, it was usually her asking that question. "We start from the beginning going over all the notes and files, theres got to be something we've missed and until Ron and Joe speak to Jess and find Jenson there isn't anything more we can do."

He nodded in agreement, it was going to be another long day.

XxX

Joe and Ron sat awkwardly in the reception area of the primary school Jess Harper, née Woods, worked. When they had first started investigating they hadn't spoken to Jess that much as she hadn't seen her Dad in years, all they had from her was a statement saying she'd seen Albie three days before he died.

Ron watched and rolled his eyes as Joe picked up 'The very hungry caterpillar' and started flicking through it.

"Enjoying that, son?" He asked and got only a murmur in response which he took as a yes. Seeing Jess walk through the double doors typing the security code he nudged his partner to smarten himself up and look a bit more professional.

They both stood and Jess walked over to them. She was a short woman with ginger hair and glasses in her early thirties.

"Did ya have to come and see me here?" She asked before looking over her shoulder seeing the receptionist was watching. She sighed. "Lets go outside."

Once in the school gardens she turned to them again. "What's going on then?"

"Your brother has gone missing." Ron told her and she didn't react.

"Our Jenson's always going off places, nothing to do with me, none of it is."

"You stayed close with your younger brother though didn't you? After you left home and according to your neighbour he was seen at your house the day after Albie Redmond was killed."

"It was a Sunday, he comes for his Sunday lunch every week, how long has that been a crime?" She spoke carefully.

"You care about your brother Jess, if your father acted only in self defence like what he's claiming why has Jenson disappeared?"

She scoffed. "Is that what he's saying? Look Uncle Albie was a good bloke, when I left home he and Auntie Vi kept a look out for me, kept an eye on Jenson too, made sure he didn't go off the rails which is more than what our dad did. Dad and Albie were mates, always had been since they were little, they had never argued, not once in all them years. Then about seven months ago Auntie Vi calls me saying Albie hasn't come home so I went to their house to sit with her. Next thing Albie walks through the door saying he had been to help my Dad with something, it was nearly one in the morning. From that day onwards he and my dad hardly spoke, then three days before he died they argued. I don't know what about and I didn't ask..."

"Did he never say what he was helping your dad with?" Joe questioned.

"I already told you, I didn't ask. My Dad was a selfish money driven man who cared about nothing but working and his reputation within his circles. Why do ya think me mam left him when our Jenson was 5. She did the right thing." She paused hearing the school bell go signalling it was time for lessons. "I have to go..."

Before Ronnie and Joe could ask her what she meant she walked away from them and followed a group of seven year olds into the building.

"She knows something..." Joe sighed.

"She's protecting her brother." Ron nodded. "She's a clever woman, whatever happened between her dad and Redmond wasn't an accident and she knows and so does her brother. Something tells me there is more to this than we first thought. We need to find Jenson..."


End file.
